Former Christian radio personality Melinda Schmidt joins Phil and Skye to talk about Christian radio, movies, TV, and whether Christian media stunts spiritual growth in the name of retaining an audience. Plus, The Atlantic writes about evangelicals losing jobs for opposing Trump!

3 Comments

Regarding the willingness of overseas podcasts to have open debates between Christians and atheists: having lived in Europe for most of my life, I can state with some certainty that other cultures enjoy the “art” of intellectual sparring, just as we do. The major difference is that there isn’t the same fixation with *winning* as there is here. In other cultures, even after the most robust debates, both sides are able to walk away without one of them having been crowned the victor. A well-fought battle is enough to satisfy both the adversaries and their spectators. With the competitive nature of the American spirit, we’re more likely to reject debates in which a winner isn’t crowned. Not only does this make a “believer vs. atheist” discussion more contentious (because someone must be proven right), but it runs the risk of causing an outcry among listeners if “their side” doesn’t come out on top.

I agree Michele. So much of the rhetoric from both sides is “us” vs “them”, with “them” being whoever disagrees with “us”. And whoever they are must be defeated. Compromise is often seen in America as weakness. I’m very disheartened especially when Christian groups resort to this sort of behavior because more often than not they are doing the exact things they accuse the other side of doing. And I think along with the fixation on winning is the fear of “losing”. Why bother enter a debate you might not win? Better to just yell and appeal to your respective bases. The closest thing we have to Unbelievable? is Intelligence Squared, and even then there’s a winner.